Musician, Rihanna, has released her first solo single in six years, a song taken from the soundtrack of the forthcoming Black Panther sequel.
‘Lift Me Up’ was released on Friday after the singer teased her return to music on social media earlier this week. The song will appear in Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which is set to be released in November.
Commenting on the song, Director, Ryan Coogler, revealed that Rihanna’s involvement in the project was to honour the late actor, Chadwick Boseman.
“Honestly, I think it was Chad. A lot of improbable things needed to happen for it to come through and Rihanna was very clear that she did that for him.”
Ryan Coogler
Coogler stated that he knew Rihanna “was at a point in her life as well where she was focusing on different things”. He indicated that she was focused on business and motherhood, which is a big theme in the film.
“We were holding out hope that maybe it could work out and boy did it for this song.”
Ryan Coogler
Lift Me Up is co-written by Rihanna, Coogler and Nigerian singer-songwriter Tems, who has previously worked with Drake, Justin Bieber, Future, Wizkid, Beyonce and Khalid.
The song is produced and co-written by Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson, who scored the first Black Panther film as well as Creed, Venom and Tenet.
It is down tempo but uplifting, and sees Rihanna’s distinctive vocals projected over a smooth accompaniment of delicate keys and strings. The singer is accompanied by a subtle backing choir as the atmospheric song builds to its climax.
Portion of the song released includes these lyrics: “Lift me up, hold me down, keep me close, safe and sound / Hold me when you go to sleep, keep me in the warmth of your love when you depart, keep me safe and sound”.
‘Lift Me Up’ causes social media frenzy
Following the release, fans warmly welcomed the single on social media, with many joking via a string of memes that the song was making them levitate, but others described it as a “disappointing” comeback and “definitely a movie soundtrack song”.
Black Panther director, Ryan Coogler, indicated that Rihanna wanted to pay tribute to the late actor, Chadwick Boseman, with the song and ‘Lift Me Up’ is the first solo single from Rihanna since the release of her album ‘Anti’ in 2016.
Since then, she has collaborated with other artists such as ‘PartyNextDoor’ and N.E.R.D., and appeared on the hugely successful ‘Wild Thoughts’ alongside DJ Khaled and Bryson Tiller.
But the singer has largely stayed quiet on the music front in recent years, as she focused on expanding her fashion, lingerie, skincare and cosmetics brand Fenty, as well as recently having a baby boy with rapper A$AP Rocky.
She also appeared opposite Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett in 2018’s film ‘Ocean’s 8’, an all-female reboot of the ‘Ocean’s 11’ franchise.
Rihanna will headline the prestigious half-time show at February’s Super Bowl in Arizona, her first live performance in over five years. Her involvement in Wakanda Forever will increase fans’ anticipation for the sequel to Black Panther, which was a huge box office success and scored a best picture nomination at the Oscars.
The movie, set to release on November 11, will see stars including Letitia Wright and Lupita Nyong’o reprise their roles as the kingdom of Wakanda fights to protect itself from invading forces in the wake of King T’Challa’s death.
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